News from Susan Thurston-Hamerski

When Hitler’s forces invaded and occupied Holland in 1940, Jacob and Maria Haasnoot’s lives changed overnight. Because they lived on a small farm that supplied their household food, the family was forced to quarter three Nazi soldiers in their house. And although these soldiers added fear to their daily lives for five years, the experience did not diminish their core belief in the good of people and strengthened how they valued education for the common good. Decades later, those principles are at the heart of a new scholarship in Jacob's name.

Ten high school students will represent Minnesota as delegates to the World Food Prize Forum Global Youth Institute in Des Moines, Iowa, October 17-20. The annual event draws more than 1200 international guests from 65 countries, including recognized experts and Nobel Prize Laureates, interested in food security and agricultural issues.

Carl Rosen, University of Minnesota professor in the Department of Soil, Water, and Climate, is lead PI on an $8 million grant from USDA-NIFA-SCRI over four years to research soil health as part of a team that brings together the research efforts of 10 universities.

What is different in the genomes of species that allow some of them to live so long? It is only with the advent of full genomes for hundreds of species that we can begin to compare lifespans between species with differences in their genomes.

The University of Minnesota College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resouce Sciences (CFANS) Dean Brian Buhr announced today that Megan Webb, Ph.D. candidate, has accepted the position of assistant professor and Extension Specialist of the AGREETT Beef Production Systems. She will join CFANS on March 30.

For University of Minnesota (UMN) researchers, scum is a word packed with profitable promise. College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences (CFANS) professor and Center for Biorefining director R. Roger Ruan and doctoral candidate Erik Anderson are converting scum into high-quality biodiesel.